Never understood the US in that regard, hard to beat a good train journey.

People per km^2Japan: 333UK: 280Germany: 233France: 123US: 34

It just doesn't scale here. The high-speed rail project in California is a boondoggle and CA has 95 people per square km, approaching the levels of France. In the US, it only makes sense in the Northeast, but there it is so hard to get easements and a build a truly new route like they did in France with the TGV.

Nuclear is expensive on a huge scale, but small-scale nuclear is possible for much less and with current tech makes more sense. Even environmentalist icons like Stewart Brand are pushing it hard as a partial path to decarbonization.

"A recent filing by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) makes clear that state mine regulators are completely unprepared to deal with the coming tsunami of coal mine abandonments."